Our bucket lists were reduced by one yesterday. We visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
Was it worth the trip? Well, it was kinda on the way to California, so why not drop in? I think, though, that we were right in resisting the urge to make it a weekend trip all these years. From Boston it is about 5 hours each way – a LOT of driving for a 2-day weekend. A long weekend would be more feasible, but I suspect the place is mobbed on long weekends. It was actually pretty busy yesterday – surprisingly so given that it is after Labor Day and the weather was terrible (tornado watches and wind advisories all along the east coast, including Cooperstown). But I still found free on-street parking within four blocks of the museum and didn’t have to shove anyone out of the way to view Curt Schilling’s bloody sock. The weather made it a bit unpleasant to wander around the downtown area, but, all in all, we were patting ourselves on the backs for being so prescient as to plan a museum visit on a crappy day. As Yoda would say, very bright we are.
One factor that we didn’t rate highly enough when thinking about a visit to Cooperstown is the village itself. It is slap-your-face cute and a significant attraction in its own right. Of course the HOF attracts all kinds of baseball memorabilia shops, but I didn’t expect to find a very quaint general store (like the Ben Franklin of my youth) right next door to the museum. Or colonial houses and ancient pubs. The environs were a big plus and made the day doubly enjoyable.
Highlights of the Hall of Fame visit: learning about the Red Sox history (the club originated in Cincinnati as the Red Stockings), seeing various artifacts of Red Sox history (yes, including the bloody sock), learning about rule changes over the years, seeing the Babe Ruth exhibit and Doubleday Field, the site of the Hall of Fame game every year. The field is surprisingly small in terms of capacity; just about any AA minor league club would have a larger stadium.
The Baseball Hall of Fame
Doubleday Field
The playing field on a rainy day
Red Sox memorabilia, with Bloody Sock
The Cy Young painting in the main entrance
Jett in downtown Cooperstown
We left the dogs home alone while we were gone for 5 hours. That was the only drama of the day – worrying about whether Grace would get nervous and eat the coach. When we returned and saw neither flames nor a hole chewed in the side, we were relieved.
Our home for the last two nights was the Beaver Valley Campground in Milford, NY. In many respects this was the best campground yet – spacious, sparkly clean, nicely landscaped and, yes, it even has beavers.
A resident beaver
Patience at Beaver Valley
Today we are embarking on our longest haul to date: 269 miles to Pennsylvania Dutch country.
If we can get out of the mud.